





ADDRESS. 


DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
Southern Higtoriéal Sodety, 


At Atlanta, Georgia. 


On Wednesday, February 18th, 1874. 





BY Ho ALE. 





Published by Request of the Society. 


ATLANTA, GA. 

ECONOMICAL BOOK AND JOB PRINTING HOUSE, 
V. P. SISSON & CO., PROPRIETORS. 

1874, 
























ast de 


Te a1 ak. Dolemite 


. : . « F 

* 4 ie ‘ 

‘ on . 
< i oi 
g y a 
, 

, ye 4 
. x ; 

’ a Vine 

= i 

- - 





ADDRESS. 





DELIVERED BEFORE THE 


Southern Historidal Sodiety, 


At Atlanta, Georgia. 


On Wednesday, February 18th, 1874. 





ove is, Fi EPLE. 





Published by Request of the Soci: ty. 


ATLANTA, GA. 
ECONOMICAL BOOK AND JOB PRINTING HOUSE, 
V. P. SISSON & CO., PROPRIETORS. 
1874. 


w 





ie 
rv 


descee 


a Duke University ae " 


a | 


aie 





; BAU Le 
r ate ae 
, 
2 4 s 
¥ b ie 







, St iy) a fi ) 
MDigitizdeh by the Internet Archi e 
in 2022 with funding f from 


ADDRESS. 





Mr. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,— 


The object of this meeting is to organize, in Georgia, an aux- 
iliary branch of “The Southern Historical Society.” The object 
of this Society is to collect and preserve authentic materials for 
a full and correct history of the Confederate States. I have 
accepted the flattering invitation to address you on this occasion, 
and now proceed to perform the part allotted me, as both a duty 
and a pleasure. 

When the war between secession and coercion ended, the 
Southern States were under every obligation which defeat could 
imply or surrender impose, to abandon secession as a remedy for 
every grievance, real or supposed. Whatever might have been 
their convictions touching the abstract right of secession, or the 
sufficiency of the causes which provoked its exercise, surrender 
was a confession of inability to maintain it by the sword, and 
honor and fair dealing demanded that the sword should be 
sheathed. But defeat, in a physical contest, does not prove that 
the defeated party was in the wrong. It is certainly no evidence 
of criminal motive. It is a confession of weakness, not of crime. 
Were it otherwise the robber is a law-abiding citizen, and his 
victim a thief. Socrates was a felon and the mob that sentenced 
him to death were patriots. Ina wicked world innocence and 
right are not at all incompatible with failure, sorrow and humil- 
‘ jation. Else the man who fell among thieves on his way from 
Jerusalem to Jericho was a criminal, and his plunderers were 
entitled to the plaudits, the oil and the wine of all good Samar- 
itans. Nay, the Saviour himself was a malefactor and his cru- 
cifiers were Christian gentlemen. Failure to dissolve the Union, 
and nothing more, was the confession of surrender, and the obli- 
gation to remain in the Union and discharge all its duties under 
the Constitution necessarily resulted. 


4 ADDRESS. 


So, on the other hand, the Northern States—the asserters of 
the right of coercion—were equally under every obligation to 
accept surrender as meaning this and only this. They proclaimed 
no other purpose in making the war of coercion, but to defeat 
secession and preserve the Union. They had no right, political, 
moral or honorable, to enlarge the issue after the contest had 
ended, and the issue made by the contest was exhausted and 
determined. 

The Southern States and people accepted, in a frank and lib- 
eral spirit, all the just consequences of their defeat. They aban- 
doned secession, and the doctrine of secession, as a practical rem- 
edy for all grievances, past or future, and for all time. They 
did more. Property in slaves was not the cause of the war. 
It was not the great fundamental right for which the Southern 
States went into secession. It was only an incident to that right. 
The right of the States to regulate their own internal affairs, by 
the exercise of the powers of government which they had never 
delegated, and the conviction that independence was necessary 
to preserve that right of self-government, was the great, moy- 
ing, inspiring cause of the seceding States. There was nota 
day of the struggle when the Southern people would not have 
surrendered slavery to secure independence. But slavery was 
the particular property which, it was believed, was endangered 
without independence, and which, therefore, made the assertion 
of secession necessary. The disciples of coercion denied this, 
and asserted they had no intention of interfering with slavery 
in the States. True, a war proclamation of emancipation was 
issued finally, and a movement was made to amend the Federal 
Constitution as if to make this emancipation effectual. But this 
was avowedly done as a threat to induce a surrender to avoid 
such a result. Yet, promptly after surrender, the Southern peo- 
ple waived the discussion of all technicalities on this question, 
and relieved their late enemies of all necessity to enter upon 
such discussion, and, in conventions assembled, each State for 
itself, most solemnly abolished slavery in their borders. To 
protect the negro in his freedom was more than a corollary to 
this emancipation. It was a duty which the preservation of 
society made necessary in each State, and by each State for itself. 

But the Northern States and people were not satisfied with 
these prompt and manly concessions by our people of every 


ADDRESS. 5 


legal, necessary, reasonable and even incidental result of defeat 
in the war. The war being over, our arms surrendered, our 
government scattered, and our people helpless, they now deter- 
mined not only to enlarge the issues made by the war and du- 
ring the war, but they also determined to change those issues 
and make demands which had not before been made, which 
indeed had been utterly disclaimed in every possible form by 
every State of the North, and every department of the Federal 
Government— legislative, executive and judicial. Nay, they 
now made demands which they had in every form, de- 
clared they could have no power or right to make without 
violating the Constitution they had sworn to support, and de- 
stroying the Union they had waged the war itself to preserve. - 
Over and over during the war they proclaimed in every author- 
itative form to us and to foreign governments, that secession 
was a nullity, that our States were still in the Union ; and that 
we had only to lay down our arms, and retain all our rights and 
powers as equal States in the Union. We laid down our arms, 
and immediately they insisted our States had lost all their 
rights and powers in the Union, and while compelled to remain 
under the control of the Union, we could only do so with such 
rights and powers as they might accord, and on such terms and 
conditions as they might impose. 

Over and over again during the war they, in like authorita- 
tive forms, proclaimed that our people had taken up arms in 
defense of secession under misapprehension of their purposes 
toward us, and that we had only to lay down our arms and 
continue to enjoy, in the Union, every right and privilege as 
before the mistaken act of secession. We laid down our arms 
and they declared we were all criminals and traitors, who had 
forfeited every right and privilege, and were entitled to neither 
property, liberty, or life, except through their clemency ! 

Over and over again during the war they, in like authorita- 
tive forms, proclaimed that the seats of our members in Con- 
gress were vacant, and we had only to return and occupy them 
as it was both our right and duty to do. Our people laid down 
their arms and sent on their members, and they were met with 
the startling proposition that we had neither the right to par- 
ticipate in the administration of the Union, nor even to make 
law or government for our own States! 


6 ADDRESS. 


Addressing this Society in Virginia, during the last summer, 
Mr. Davis said: ‘We were more cheated than conquered into 
surrender.” The Northern press denounced this as a slander, 
and some of our Southern press deprecated the expression as 
indiscreet! I aver to-night what history will affirm, that the 
English language does not contain, and could not form a sen- 
tence of equal size which expressed more truth. We were 
cheated not only by our enemies ; but the profuse proclamations 
of our enemies, before referred to, were taken up and repeated 
by malcontents in our midst—many of them, too, who had done 
all in their power to hurry our people into secession. They 
coupled these professions and promises of our enemies with 
brazen assertions that the laws of the Confederate Government, 
enacted to carry on the war, were unconstitutional and void. 
They scattered these documents of twin falsehood and treachery 
among our people to prove to them they had a right to refuse 
supplies to the soldiers. They scattered them through the army 
to convince soldiers it was no crime to desert. And they scat- 
tered them among our enemies to prove to them that our people 
were dividing, that our armies were weakening, and that they 
had only to take courage and keep up the struggle, and surren- 
der was inevitable! Oh, my friends, we were fearfully, sadly, 
treacherously, altogether cheated into surrender! If the de- 
mands made after the war was over, had been frankly avowed 
while the war was in progress, there would have been no pre- 
texts for our treacherous malcontents ; there would have been 
no division or wearying among our people; there would have 
been no desertions from our armies, and there would have been 
no surrender of arms, nor loss of our cause! Never! Never! 

But the Northern States and people having made these de- 
mands as results of the war, when we could join no issue on 
them in battle, there were only legal and political forums left in 
which to test their justice and truth. Had sovereign States 
committed treason? Were eight millions of people traitors? 
Were leaders who had only obeyed their States, and served their 
people, criminals worthy of death ? 

These were the great questions, and the most usual forums 
to determine such issues were the courts of law. There was 
certainly no hindrance to such a test. Our great chief was a 
prisoner—in a dungeon—in chains! He was not only ready 


ADDRESS. 7 


and willing to be tried, but demanded a trial. By himself he 
was most anxious to vindicate the innocence of his people ; or 
in himself expiate their guilt by an ignominious death! Our 
enemies had the appointment of the judges; the formation of 
the court ; the selection of the jury; the entire control and di- 
rection of the proceedings. Why did they hesitate? Why did 
they finally decline to try? Was it because of mercy? or a 
spirit of magnanimity? Ah! we shall see directly. No, they 
were gnashing their teeth with rage. They knew that such a 
trial had no parallel in human history. They knew the whole 
world and posterity for all time would review it. There was the 
written law, and they knew it had not been violated! Eight mil- 
lions of people, struggling as one man for liberty, were not trai- 
tors only because power and treachery combined to defeat and 
enslave them. To try and convict, was to commit perjuries 
which would redden human nature with an eternal blush of 
shame. To try and acquit, was a judgment under oath by their 
own courts, that the war of coercion was itself but a gigantic 
crime against humanity, and a wicked violation of their own 
form and principles of government. 

Here was the terrible dilemma which confronted our accusers, 
and it was so palpable that all the insolence of recent triumph 
could not hide it; and they were left no resource but to pretend 
a merey, whose necessity they despised, and turn the prisoner 
loose, after a long and’most cowardly delay. 

The next forum in which our people had a right to be heard, 
was the Congress—the National Councils. By every protest 
and profession of our enemies, before and during the war, the 
Union was preserved, and by the plain terms of the Constitution © 
each State was entitled to representation in both branches of 
Congress. The refusal to test the crime of secession before the 
courts increased, if possible, the obligation to recognize this clear 
right of representation. This was a rare opportunity for vindi- 
cation. ‘The forms of government had afforded it to few defeat- 
ed parties in history, and to none on such terms of fairness and 
equality. There was never a time when the intellect of a peo- 
ple was so needed for their vindication, and no people ever pos- 
sessed grander intellects for the work. We had trained states- 
men, constitutional lawyers, skilled debaters, who were perfectly 
familiar with every fact, and learned in every principle involved, 


8 ADDRESS. 


And the very ablest and best of these there was no reason to 
doubt every Southern State would at once, and with unanimity, 
return to Congress. If this had been done, not only would the 
South have been vindicated, but the present horrible sectional 
acrimony, with all the black record of reconstruction, would 
have been avoided. The reunion would have been made cordial, 
with secession abandoned and slavery abolished. The Southern 
States would already have been far advanced in the work of ma- 
terial recovery, of social order, and political contentment ; and 
all the States—co-equals in a common Union—would be rejoic- 
ing in a manifest new lease of constitutional government and 
republican Liberty. 

But the very reasons which made the return of our ablest 
men to Congress a glorious opportunity for us, made it a dreaded 
one for our adversaries. Victors as they were in a physical 
contest, they were not willing to meet the vanquished in intel- 
lectual gladiatorship. To protect themselves from this collision 
of mind, they determined to add yet further crimes to-their 
cowardice. And now we approach the analysis of the most stu- 
pendous series of crimes ever perpetrated in human history by 
individuals or States, civilized or savage. Unwilling to risk 
their own judges and jurics, to pass legally upon the treason 
charged, our adversaries determined to punish without convic- 
tion. Unwilling to hazard the power of equal debate upon the 
minds and consciences of their own people, they determined to 
condemn without a hearing. And why not? Their victims 
were unarmed and helpless, and the luxury of vengeance could 
have easy, safe, and unrestrained gratification. 

The first act was for Congress, composed chiefly of men who 
had been borne into their seats on the bloody tide of sectional 
hate and strife, to seize all legislative powers into their own 
hands, and exclude the Southern States not only from actual 
representation, but from the right of representatives. 

To justify this enormous usurpation, they declared the South- 
ern States needed reconstruction. As this idea was wholly un- 
known to the Constitution, they boldly put themselves outside 
of the Constitution they had sworn to observe. ‘To make the 
work of reconstruction effective, they resolved that it belonged 
exclusively to Congress—the legislative department—and_ that 
the Executive department could not and should not participate, 


ADDRESS. 9 


except to furnish the military to aid in holding the victims still 
while the punishment was being inflicted. To prevent any em- 
barrassing review of their measures, they further resolved that 
all questions arising under reconstruction were political and not 
judicial, and that, therefore, the courts could not and should not 
pass upon their constitutionality. Thus fortified in their usur- 
pations, and goaded by rancorous, blind, long-nurtured hate, 
they commenced the work of dissolving governments; destroy- 
ing States ; robbing, insulting and oppressing already impover- 
ished and helpless peoples, and humiliating the white race! 
They entered each Southern State, and declared all existing 
governments to be illegal. They outlawed and set aside all ex- 
isting constituencies—the constituencies which originated State 
governments, and participated in forming the Federal Govern- 
ment. They created new constituencies composed chiefly of 
ignorant negroes. They offered to include in these new constit- 
uencies such of the resident whites as would consent that the 
usurpations were legal, and these punishments were just ; and it 
must ever be a sad recital, for all time, that some of our people 
were willing €o barter their section, State, race and blood, for 
the privilege of aiding in this work of destruction, degradation 
and infamy. ‘The future historian will weep bitter tears when 
he finds himself compelled to record this darkest exhibition of 
human treachery and depravity, and he will close up the chap- 
ter as, with nervous energy, he shall write the withering judg- 
ment of all decent humanity: for all future ages: Cursed, thrice, 
cursed forever, be the memories of such unnatural monsters 
among men! 

These motley constituencies of ignorance and vice, having no 
conception but in hate; no birth but in strife; no nursing but 
in usurpation, and no strength but in crime and treachery, were 
placed, in each State under the appropriate lead of adventurous 
vagabonds, bankrupt in fortunes and hungry for the spoil 
of their victims; paupers from birth in every sentiment of 
honor, and enjoying with keen relish the humiliation of their 
superiors! And these formed the government under which we 
have been dying. Ignorant negroes have been made masters ; 
proud, educated masters made slaves. Robbers have been made 
rulers; thieves have been made detectives, all protected by 
Federal power, while humble submission to the remorseless de- 


10 : ADDRESS. . 


mands of this insatiate wickedness has been made the only test 
of loyalty and devotion to that Union which our fathers helped 
to form in order to secure the blessings of liberty to them and 
their posterity ! 

Many of the effects of this policy of reconstruction the future 
historian will have no difficulty in discovering. 

The millions of taxes we have had to pay to feed these vam- 
pires upon our substances, and sickening eye-sores to our pride 
and honor; the millions of debt piled up for our posterity to 
pay in bonds issued by these licensed gamblers upon the pro- 
perty, life and hope of the people of these States; the misce- 
genating orgies of loyal legislators, and reckless plundering of 
carpet-bag Governors ; the readiness with which criminals were 
turned loose, and the equal readiness with which good citizens 
were arrested without warrant, tried without law, convicted 
without evidence and hurried off to foreign prisons without 
mercy, only because they were suspected of having too much 
manhood to bear their wrongs with unmurmuring submission ; 
how our lands -vere depreciated, our society demoralized, and 
all our most intelligent and virtuous citizens ®ere denied all . 
right to provide remedies. These and many more of like 
character, the future historian will easily see, and must see, 
though every glance create nausea. But there are other facts 
and incidents, not so patent to the world, and not on record, 
which may be found in every neighborhood, and which we 
ought to gather up as far as wé can. Rich men have been 
made poor ; proud men have been made humble ; noble women 
have been insulted ; innocent men have been imprisoned ; many, 
very many, have been too weak to bear their sorrows and the 
sorrows of their country, and kind death has brought them a 
refuge from grief. And yet the authors of all these wrongs 
boast of the great magnanimity, and generosity, they have ex- 
hibited to a fallen foe! They did not hang, and exile our 
leaders, nor confiscate our property! What conqueror was ever 
before so manly and liberal? But they. made slaves of masters, 
and masters of slaves; law-makers of vagabonds ; rulers of 
strangers, and tax gatherers of robbers. They declined to take 
life, only that they might make life a lingering death. They 
did not drive us from home, only that they might make home, 
the abode of sorrow and poverty. They failed to confiscate 


: ADDRESS. Jt 


our property by the usual act of government, that it might 
remain to be taken by negroes, thieves and strangers, as their 
own lawful spoil! Death, exile, confiscation would end the 
punishment too soon. Such vengeance craved longer revel, and 
slower torture! And if we, who have been the witnesses to 
these horrors, and the victims of these wrongs, will only gather 
up and preserve the unwritten outrages, and unrecorded griefs of 
the last seven years, all posterity will, with one voice, declare 
that the punishments inflicted by our adversaries upon the 
Southern Siates and people under the name of reconstruction, 
for vindictiveness of hate; for meanness of oppression; for 
cool, prolonged relish of torture, and for insatiate extravagance 
of plunder, are without parallel in precedent, civilized or 
heathen ! 

It must be admitted that our enemies were wisely wicked. 
They well knew it would never do to admit Southern intellect 
into the National councils, until their work was fully completed 
and had been made part of the fundamental law. Even when 
reconstructionghad reached the point that the doors of Congress 
must be opened, they were only allowed to be opened to such 
as were participants in, and products of the infamy. The ca- 
ressing fathers took only to their arms the dirty children their 
vengeance had begotten. In 1872, alarmed by what seemed to 
be a returning sense of justice at the North, aided by most 
remarkable concessions, for peace and deliverance, at the 
South, Congress removed the illegal disabilities imposed upon 
most of our leaders, though upon many even yet these disabil- 
ities remain. In the mean time, most of our greatest men, who 
were most familiar with the facts of the past, so essential to our 
vindication, had passed away, or were rapidly passing away. A 
very few of these were released from these bonds upon the use 
of their intellects. But most manifestly, a better opportunity 
had returned at last to the Southern people, and it was expected 
by our enemies and the world, that this opportunity would be 
improved, and our very ablest men everywhere chosen to Con- 
gress. And now comes the most curious chapter in our history. 
It will puzzle the future historian. Not a single man who was 
in full sympathy and accord with the Confederate administra- 
tion, and who was intimate in the councils and, daily as it pro- 
gressed, familiar with the policy of that administration, has 


12 ADDRESS. 


been called by our own people to a single prominent position, 
State or National! While many, who gave aid and encourage- 
ment to the enemy, by disaffecting our people to that adminis- 
tration during the war of coercion, and refused to give counsel, 
or counseled consent, during the baser war of reconstruction, 
have received high marks of confidence from our enemies, and 
high positions of honor from our people! Crowds of intellec- 
tual imbeciles, like flocks of ‘noisy blackbirds in harvest time, 
rush forward to secure, by personal scramble and trade, those 
positions of heaviest trust and responsibility, and thus murder 
all hope of having any vindication of our dead, or justice for 
our living in the Councils of the Nation. . 

When such a State as Virginia, in such a crisis as this, for 
such a place as the Senate, repudiates such a statesman as Hun- 
ter—familiar with every fact of the Federal history, intimately 
familiar with every fact in Confederate councils, trained in de- 
bate, learned in constitutional law, courteous in manner, accurate 
in statement, powerful in logic, and respected even by our ene- 
mies—I think it is time to despair of doing anything, in this 
generation, to lift the South to her former position of influence 
and power in the Congress of the United States. To feed our 
people on frothy declamation now, however blown by procured 
newspaper puffs, is like feeding a starving multitude on unsub- 
stantial snow-flakes, however piled up by capricious winds! 
There was never such a field for real, profound, patriotic states- 
manship. The very inferiority of Northern Representatives, as 
compared with those they sent to Congress before the war, but 
increased the chances for Southern statesmen to remove, by 
proper debate in the national councils, the false theories and 
impressions which have been crowded into the minds of the 
Northern people, and thus return the general government to its 
constitutional limitations, restore to the States the free exercise 
of their reserved rights, and rescue from destruction for our 
enemies as well as for ourselves, those great principles of consti- 
tutional government which every purpose of the Confederates 
sought to maintain, and which every feature of coercion must 
logically tend to destroy. 

Thus, denied by our enemies the opportunity of silencing by 
the solemn judgments of their own courts, the fierce accusations 
of criminality in secession ; and denied, by our enemies and the 


ADDRESS. 13 


follies of our own people, the glorious chance of vindicating our 
cause in high debate, and face to face with the chosen champions 
of our accusers, we have but one resource left us for defense or 
vindication. That resource is HISTORY—impartial, and unpas- 
sioned, un-office-secking History! It is to secure a FAIR trial 
befove this august tribunal that this Society has been organized 
to collect, prepare and perpetuate the evidence. Our enemies 
are exceedingly active in their efforts to get a false presentation 
of the testimony for the judgment of history. They are seeking 
to monopolize the possession of our own records. They readily 
pay more money for disjointed portions of Confederate archives 
than they did for the Madison papers, giving an account of the 
proceedings of the convention that framed the Constitution. It 
is shameful to see how much assistance they are receiving, in 
their efforts to pervert and falsify our history, from those mal- 
contents who kept up such restless assaults on the Confederate 
administration. The men who quarrelled more with their own 
side than with the enemy during the struggle, are among the first 
after the war, to rush to writing books to give their account of 
the government they did so much to break down. We owe it, 
therefore, to our DEAD, to our living, and to our children, to be 
active in the work of preserving the TRUTH and repelling the 
falsehoods, so that we may secure, for them and for us, JUST 
judgment from the ONLY tribunal before which we can be fully 
and FAIRLY heard. . 

If the full truth can be secured and preserved, we shall have 
nothing to fear in the comparison with our enemy which history 
will make. The courage of our troops is beyond perversion.— 
The fact that we killed, wounded and captured a greater. number 
of the enemy than we had soldiers in our armies, is a tribute to 
our gallantry and skill which the records of no civilized war can 
surpass. With inferior arms, and limited resources, shut up 
from supplies from the outside world, and with unfortunate and 
fatal divisions between the Southern States and among ourselves, 
we made a fight for independence which no people on earth ever 
yet equalled. : 

Equally wonderful were the achievements of our statesman- 
ship. In the beginning we had neither government, nor army, 
nor navy, nor treasury. All these we had to improvise in the 
very hearing of an arming foe, who had an established govern- 


14 ADDRESS. 


ment, an organized army, a powerful navy, and all the sinews 
and appliances of war in extravagant abundance. And _ yet, 
when the enactments and measures of the Confederate govern- 
ment shall be critically examined, they will be found to have 
sprung into existence with a wisdom, a vigor, an aptitude for 
the crisis and a strict conformity to.all the principles of free in- 
stitutions, which must challenge the admiration of publicists and 
statesmen for all time. 

No people, ancient or modern, can look with more pride to 
the verdict which history will be compelled to render upon the 
merits and characters of our two chief leaders—the one in the 
military, and the other in the civil service. Most other leaders 
are great because of fortunate results, and heroes because of suc- 
cess. Davis and Les, because of qualities in themselves, are 
great in the face of fortune, and heroes in spite of defeat. 

When the future historian shall come to survey the charac- 
ter of LEE, he will find it rising like a huge mountain above 
the undulating plain of humanity, and he must lift his eyes 
high towards Heaven to catch its summit. He possessed every 
virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was 
a foe without hate ; a friend without treachery ; a soldier with- 
out cruelty ; a victor without oppression, and a victim without 
murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private 
citizen without wrong ; a neighbor without reproach ; a Chris- 
tian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was 
Cesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny ; 
Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his 
reward. He was obedient to authority as a servant, and royal 
in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; 
modest and pure as a virgin in thought ; watchful as a Roman 
vestal in duty ; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in 
battle as Achilles ! 

There were many peculiarities in the habits and character of 
Lee, which are but little known and which may be studied with 
profit. He studiously avoided giving opinions upon subjects 
which it. had not been his calling or training to investigate ; and 
sometimes I thought he carried this great virtue too far. Neither 
the President, nor Congress, nor friends could get his views 
upon any public question not strictly military, and no man had 
as much quiet, unobtrusive contempt for what he called “mili- 


ADDRESS. 15 


tary statesmen and political generals.” Meeting him once in 
the streets of Richmond, as I was going out and he going in 
the executive office, I said to him, “General, I wish you would 
give us your opinion as to the propriety of changing the seat of 
government, and going further South.” 

“That is a political question, Mr. Hill, and you politicians 
must determine it. I shall endeavor to take care of the army 
and you must make the laws and control the government.” 

“Ah, General,” I said, “but you will have to change that 
rule, and form and express political opinions ; for, if we estab- 
lish our independence, the people will make you Mr. Davis’ 
successor.” 

“Never, sir,” he replied with a firm dignity that belonged 
only to Lee. “That I will never permit. Whatever talents I 
may possess, (and they are but limited), are military talents. 
My education and training are military. I think the military 
and civil talents are distinct, if not different, and full duty in 
either sphere is about as much as one man can qualify himself 
to perform. I shall not do the people the injustice to accept 
high civil office, with whose questions it has not been my busi- 
ness to become familiar.” 

“Well, but General,” I insisted, “history does not sustain 
your view. Cesar, and Frederick of Prussia, and Bonaparte, 
were all great statesmen, as well as great generals.” 

“And all great tyrants,” ‘he promptly rejoined. “I speak of 
the proper rule in republics, where, I think, we should have 
neither military statesmen, nor political generals.” 

“But Washington was both, and yet not a tyrant,” I repeated. 

And with a beautiful smile, he said: ‘Washington was an 
exception to all rule, and there was none like him.” 

-I could find no words to answer, but instantly I said in 
thought: Surely Washington is no longer the only exception, 
for one like him, if not even greater, is here. 

Lee sometimes indulged in satire, to which his greatness gave 
point and power. He was especially severe on newspaper criti- 
cisms of military movements—subjects about which the writers 
knew nothing. 

“We made a great mistake, Mr. Hill, in the beginning of our 
struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to 


16 ADDRESS. 


be a fatal mistake,” he said to me, after Gen. Bragg ceased to 
command the Army of Tennessee, an event Lee deplored. 


“What mistake is that, General ?” 


“Why, sir, in the beginning, we appointed all our worst gen- 
erals to command the armies, and all our best generals to edit 
the newspapers. As you know, I have planned some campaigns 
and quite a number of battles. I have given the work all the 
care and thought I could, and sometimes when my plans were 
completed, as far as I could see, they seemed to be perfect. But, 
when I have fought them through, I have discovered defects, 
and occasionally wondered I did not see some of the defects in 
advance. When it was all over, I found, by reading a newspa- 
per, that these best editor generals saw all the defects plainly 
from the start. Unfortunately, they did not communicate their 
knowledge to me until it was too late!” Then, after a pause, he 
added, with a beautiful, grave expression I can never forget : 
“T have no ambition but to serve the Confedercy, and do all I 
can to win our independence. I am willing to serve in any ca- 
pacity to which the authorities may assign me. I have done 
the best I could in the field, and have not succeeded as I could 
wish. I am willing to yield my place to these best generals, 
and I will do my best for the cause editing a newspaper !””* 

Jefferson Davis was as great in the cabinet as was Lee in the 
field. He was more resentful in temper, and more aggressive 
in his nature than Lee. His position, too, more exposed him to as- 
saults from our own people. He had to make all appointments, 
and though often upon the recommendation of others, all the 
blame of mistake was charged to him, and mistakes were often 
charged by disappointed seekers and their friends which were 
not made. He also made recommendations for enactments, and 
though these measures, especially the military portion, invaria- 
bly had the concurrence of, and, often originated with Lee, the 
opposition of malcontents was directed at Davis. It is astonish- 
ing how men in high position, and supposed to be great, would 
make war on the whole administration for the most trivial per- 
sonal disappointment. Failures to get places, for favorites of 
very ordinary character, has inspired long harangues against the 





* Since making this Address, I find that I repeated this same unecdote 
in the speech at LaGrange in March, 1865, 


ADDRESS. 17 


most important measures, and they were continued and repeated 
even after those measures became laws. ‘Can you believe,” he 
said to me once, “that men—statesmen—in a struggle like this, 
would hazard an injury to the cause because of their personal 
grievances, even if they were well founded?” “Certainly,” I 
replied, “I not only believe it but know it. There are men 
who regard themselves with more devotion than they do the 
cause. If such men offer you counsel you do not take, or ask 
appointments you do not make, however you may be sustained 
in such action by Lee and all the Cabinet, and even the Con- 
gress, they accept your refusal as questioning their wisdom, and 
as personal war on them.” ‘T cannot conceive of such a feel- 
ing,” he said. “TI have but one enemy to fight, and that is our 
common enemy. I may make mistakes, and doubtless I do, 
but I do the best I can with all the lights at the time before 
me. God knows I would sacrifice most willingly my life, much 
more, my opinions, to defeat that enemy.” 

We all remember the fierce war which was made in Georgia, 
against certain war measures of the Congress, and against Mr. 
Davis for recommending them. Conscription and impressment, 
especially, were denounced as unconstitutional and void, and 
not binding on soldiers or people. And then, the limited sus- 
pension of habeas corpus was made the occasion for a concerted 
movement on the Legislature, assembled in extra session, to 
array the State in hostility to the Confederate administration. 
It failed. This was in the dark days of 1864. On returning 
to Richmond after this, I made the usual call of courtesy—no, 
of duty and of pleasure—on the President. As I arose to leave 
him, I said: “ Mr. President, I am happy to say to you, that, 
notwithstanding some indications to the contrary, the people of 
Georgia will cordially sustain you in all your efforts to achieve 
our independence.” “And I thank you, sir, for that informa- 
tion, and I have never doubted the fidelity of Georgia.” “The 
people of Georgia sustain you,” I added, “not only because they 
have confidence in you, but chiefly because it is the only way to 
sustain the cause.” And with an expression of sincerity glow- 
ing all over his countenance, and with a reverential pathos I 
can never forget, he said: “And God knows my heart, I ask all, 
ALL for the cause ; nothing, NOTHING for myself.” Truer words 


2 


18 ADDRESS. 


never fell from nobler lips, nor warmed from the heart of a 
more devoted patriot. These words express in language, the 
soul, the mind, the purpose, aye, the ambition of Jefferson Da- 
vis. It was his misfortune, and the misfortune of the Confed- 
eracy, that this was not true of all who were in authority. It was 
his fault, perhaps, that he did not use his authority to deprive 
such of their power to do evil. 


Iam speaking in Atlanta, and it is all the more proper, 
therefore, that I should speak for the first time in publie of the 
removal of General Johnston from the command of the army of 
the Tennessee. 


I have heard it said that I advised that removal. This is 
not true. I gave no advice on the subject, because I was not a 
military man. You have all heard it said that Mr. Davis was 
moved by personal hostility to General Johnston, in making this 
removal. This is not only not true, but is exceedingly false. I 
do know much on the subject of this removal. I was the bearer 
of messages from General Johnston to the President. and was in 
Richmond, and sometimes present, during the discussions on the 
subject. I never saw as much agony in Mr. Davis’ face, as actu- 
ally distorted it, when the possible necessity for this removal 
was at first suggested to him. I never heard a eulogy pronounced 
upon General Johnson by his: best friends, as a fighter if he 
would fight, equal to that which I heard from Mr. Davis during 
these discussions. I know he consulted with General Lee fully, 
earnestly and anxiously before this removal. I know that those 
who pressed the removal, first and most earnestly, in the Cab- 
inet, were those who had been most earnest for General John- 
ston’s original appointment to that command. All these things 
I do personally know. I was not present when the order for 
removal was determined upon, but I received it immediately 
after from a member of the Cabinet, and do not doubt its truth, 
that Mr. Davis was the very last- man who gave his assent to 
that removal, and he only gave the order when fully satisfied it 
was absolutely necesaary to prevent the surrender of Atlanta 
without a fight. 


The full history of the Hampton Roads commission and con- 
ference has never been written. I will not give that history now. 


ADDRESS. Pete 


Much has been said and published on the subject which is not 
true. I know why each member of that commission, on our 
part, was selected. I received from Mr. Davis’ own lips a full 
account of the conversation between himself and the commis- 
sioners before their departure from Richmond. 


Yon have heard it said that the President embarrassed the 
commissioners by giving them positive instructions to make the 
recognition of independence an ultimatum—a condition prece- 
dent to any negotiations. This is not true. Mr. Davis gave 
the commissioners no written instructions «and no ultimatum. 
He gave them, in conversation, his views, but leaving much to 
their discretion. They could best judge how to conduct the con- 
ference when they met. His own opinion was, that it would be 
most proper and wise, so to conduct it, if they could, as to 
RECEIVE rather than MAKE propositions. While he did not 
feel authorized to yield our independence in advance, and should 
not do so, and while he did not desire them to deceive Mr. Lin- 
coln, or be responsible for any false impressions Mr. Lincoln 
might have, yet, he was willing for them to secure an armistice, 
although they might be satisfied that Mr. Lincoln, in agreeing 
to it, did so under the belief that re-union must, as a result, 
follow. I may add that Mr. Davis had no hope of success, or 
of securing an armistice, after he learned that Mr. Seward was 
to accompany Mr. Lincoln. “ Mr. Lincoln,” he said, “ is an 
honest, well-meaning man, but Seward is wily and treacherous.” 


I could detain you all night correcting false impressions which 
have been industriously made against this great and good man. 
I know Jerrerson Davis as I know few men. I have been 
near him in his public duties; I have seen him by his private 
fireside; I have witnessed his humble christian devotions ; and 
I challenge the judgment of history when I say, no people were 
ever led through the fiery struggle for liberty by a nobler, truer 
patriot ; while the carnage of war and the trials of public life 
never revealed a purer and more beautiful christian character. 


Those who, during the struggle, prostituted public office for 
private gain ; or used position to promote favorites ; or forgot 
public duty to avenge private griefs ; or were derelict or faith- 
less in any form to our cause, are THEY who condemn and abuse 


20 ADDRESS. 


Mr. Davis. And well they may, for of all such he was the con- 
trast, the rebuke and the enemy. Those who were willing to 
sacrifice self for the cause ; who were willing to bear trials for 
its success ; who were willing to reap sorrow and poyerty that 
victory might be won, will ever cherish the name of JEFFERSON 
Davis, for, to all such he was a glorious peer, and a most wor- 
thy leader. . 


T would be ashamed of my own unworthiness if I did not 
venerate Lee. I would scorn my own nature if I did not love 
- Davis. I would question my own integrity and patriotism if I 
did not honor and admire both. There are some who affect to 
praise Lee, and condemn Davis. But, of all such, Lee himself 
would be ashamed. No two leaders ever leaned, each on the 
other, in such beautiful trust and absolute confidence. Hand in 
hand and heart to heart, they moved in the front of the dire 
struggle of their people for independence—a noble pair of 
brothers. And if fidelity to right, endurance of trials, and sac- 
rifice of self for others, can win title to a place with the good 
in the great hereafter, then Davis and Lee will meet where wars 
are not waged, and slanderers are not heard ; and as heart in 
heart, and wing to wing they fly through the courts of Heaven, 
admiring angels will say, What a noble pair of brothers! 


The saddest chapter in Confederate history which the future 
historian will be called to write, will be that one in which he 
shall undertake to define the real cause of our failure. For the 
truth must be told. 


Five millions of people, in such a country as we possess, were 
not conquered because our resources were inferior, or our enemies 
were so powerful. All physical disadvantages are insufficient 
to account for our failure. The truth is, we failed because too 
many of our own people were not determined to win. Malcon- 
tents at home and in high places, took more men from Lee’s 
army than did Grant’s guns. The same agencies created dis- 
sensions among our people, and we failed to win independence 
because our sacrifices ceased, our purpose faltered, and our 
strength was divided. Kind judge, let this sad chapter be 
short! 


But above all things we have least to dread in history on the 


ADDRESS. 21 


merits of the issues which divided the contending parties. The 
Southern States and people must stand before the bar of history 
responsible for secession. The Northern States and people must 
stand before the same bar responsible for coercion and recon- 
struction. Weighed upon principle, by authority, and by effects 
and consequences, which of the two positions is the more inimical 
to the Union, to Constitutional government and to liberty ? 


When the States formed the Union, several of them, espe- 
cially New York and Virginia, expressly reserved the right to 
withdraw as a:condition of ratification. ‘This reservation, by a 
well established rule of construction, enured to all the parties to 
the Union. But no State recognized coercion to preserve the 
Union as a right or power, in the Federal government, either 
express or resulting. So, in the very stipulations which made 
the Union, secession finds a justification, and coercion none. 

From 1787 to 1860, the ablest statesmen in America, both in 
the North and in the South, conceded the right of secession to 
the States. Some insisted it was a constitutional right, inhering 
in the sovereignty of the States, and conditioned in the terms of 
the compact. Others denied it was a constitutional right, but 
said it was only a revolutionary right, to be exercised for cause, 
and that infidelity to the terms, or the purposes of Union, would 
be sufficient cause to justify the act. But no accepted statesman, 
North or South, Whig or Democrat, ever contended or claimed 
that coercion was a right, either constitutional or revolutionary, 
during all that period. So, upon the authority of all our great 
statesmen, including the very framers of the Constitution, seces- 
sion will stand in history acquitted and justified, while coercion, 
upon the same authority, must be condemned as criminal and 
without excuse. 


Secession, consummated, would have divided the Union ; the 
seceding States forming a new Union, and leaving the old Union 
in undisturbed enjoyment of the States remaining. Coercion, 
consummated, would first destroy the chief character of the 
Union, by making it a Union of force, instead of a Union of con- 
sent. In the next place, coercion, consummated, would destroy 
the Union and substitute consolidation instead. The very word, 
union, implies the combination of separate wholes for a common 


22 ADDRESS. 


purpose. The moment you destroy the separate identity of the 
members, that moment Union ceases, and unity—consolidation 
—is accomplished. To destroy, is a greater crime than to sepa- . 
rate or divide, and therefore, coercion is a greater crime against 
the Union than secession. 


Again: Secession did not interfere with the rights, or attack 
the sovereignty, or lessen the dignity or importance of the 
States. Its real great purpose was to rescue all these from the 
consequences of threatened consolidation. But coercion, in its 
very nature, asserts dominion over the States, and must destroy 
them. Suppose we concede that secession would destroy the 
Union, which is the greater crime, to destroy the Union, the 
creature of the States, or the States which created the Union ? 
But I have shown that coercion destroyed the Union as well as 
the States. Then, again, the Union of the States was formed to 
secure the blessings of liberty. Secession could not even impair 
the liberties of the people. It interfered, in no way whatever, 
with the rights or privileges of the Northern States and people. 
It sought only to make more secure the rights, liberties and 
privileges of the Southern States and people. But coercion, in 
destroying the Union, and making a consolidation, and in de- 
stroying the States, can have no logical result but in the destruc- 
tion of all the liberties of all the people North and South.— 
Will our people never perceive the patent truth, that coercion 
must work consolidation, and that consolidation must destroy’ 
the identity and powers of the States and the liberties of the 
people? To coerce a State is necessarily to enslave the State, 
and to enslave the State is necessarily to enslave the people of 
the State. Nothing but the roar of cannon, in the hands of un- 
reasoning physical power, can silence this logic of Liberty. 


Here, then, great impartial judge of the future, we rest the 
law of our case. Secession did not destroy the Union, nor the 
States, nor the liberties the Union of States was formed to 
secure. It only proposed to divide the Union, in order to res- 
cue the States and the liberties of the people from destruction 
and overthrow. But coercion is the ruthless criminal which has 
consolidated the Union, enslaved the States, and destroyed the 
liberties of the people ! 


ADDRESS. U3 


Secession invaded no State—interfered with no right—lessened 
the privileges of no man. Coercion laid waste the States, en- 
slaved the people, murdered their sons, despoiled their daugh- 
ters, desolated their homes, and burnt up their property ! 


And what is Reconstruction ? It is the practical application 
of coercion. It is logic turning to facts. It is coercion at its 
work. It is the torch of the incendiary ; the knife of the as- 
sassin; the fire-arm of the bandit, sending death-blows to the 
life of the State, to the heart of society, and to the hopes of 
civilization, that ignorance and vice may be exalted, and intelli- 
gence and virtue degraded ! 


Do I exaggerate? Look at South Carolina and answer. See 
the land of Marion and Sumter; of Rutledge and Pinckney ; 
of Calhoun and Butler, the prey and sport of rioting thieves 
and gluttenous plunderers, whose orgies continue days, months 
and years in the face of the nation and under Federal protection ! 


Look at Louisiana! Behold a sovereign State sentenced to 
the chain-gang by telegram from Washington, to work at hard 
labor under negro and carpet-bag drivers ! 


This! this, is the fruit of Coercion! These are the works of 
Reconstruction ! 


Have the people of America no shame? Has the God of 
Heaven no wrath? If coercion and reconstruction shall con- 
tinue, their fruits will multiply until all the people, in agonized 
remorse shall ery out: Surely, several unions were better than 
on: Empire, and divided Liberty more to be desired than con- 
centrated Despotism ! 


Is there a pessible remedy for these evils? I should be un- 
candid if I did not confess to you, I doubt it. There is no res- 
urrection for dead republics, and few have ever been restored to 
vigor and health after reaching our present state of decline. I 
fear our people have not more intelligence and virtue than those 
whose histories we are but repeating. But for one I am willing 
to make the effort, and I exhort our Southern people to cherish 
no feeling inimical to success, and omit no duty that may pro- 
mote it. We have more interest in restoring constitutional goy- 
ernment than any other people, for, if despotism shall come over 


24 ADDRESS. 


all, North and South, there is reason to fear that, serfdom of the 
South to the North, will be our darkest portion. 


You know I never regarded secession as wise in act, for, how- 
ever legal or just it may, or may not, have been as an abstract 
right, I never believed it would prove practicable as a remedy. 
I have never doubted that a belligerent collision between cen- 
tralism and constitutional federalism would, sooner or later, 
come. But, by the States, in the Union, and for the liberties of 
the people, was always my favorite plan to make the fight. But 
for the sensitiveness of slavery we might have made that fight 
only in the Union. Let, therefore, secession and slavery be 
buried out of sight, and, though late, let us make one more de- 
termined effort, in the forum of reason, and at the ballot-box, 
to save the treasures we are losing. We should not pull down 
the Temple our fathers built, because thieves and money changers 
desecrate it. Rather, under the inspiring memories of 1776, let 
us wake up the sleeping god of patriotism, and cast out the 
despoilers, and consecrate the Temple anew to the equality of 
the States and to the liberties of our children ! 


There is but one beginning for this work. We must elevate 
the statesmanship of the country. In all republics an imbecile 
statesmanship has succeeded a civil war, and we have not escaped 
the scourge. It is because men, at such times, rise into power 
on passion and hate, and not by merit.and worth. If you would 
purity statesmanship, you must elevate it. Men of intellect, 
alive with ambition to lift up a falling State, are more apt to be 
moral, patriotic and honest, than hypocritical imbeciles, who, 
dead to the capacity of this higher ambition, are alive only to 
trade and barter in blood, relatos and pr TS in order to 
reap putts, perquisites and aie 


In order to elevate our statesmanship, two things, in my 
opinion, are indispensable. In the first place, our people must 
abandon the insane habit of placing men in high civil positions, 
simply because of military talents or success. Lee was right. 
It is contrary to the very genius and safety of republican insti- 
tutions, to place their civil administration in the keeping of men 
of military aptitude and training. Brave fighting is no evidence 
of able statesmanship. It is usually evidence of the very con- 


ADDRESS. 25 


trary. Otherwise, Captain Jack was the foremost statesman of 
this age, and, instead of being hanged, ought to have been made 
President or Senator for life. If this habit shall not cease, we 
shall not have a civil statesman for President this generation. 
In Congress, too, we have generals, and colonels, and captains, 
and lieutenants, sufficient to make a small army, and scarcely 
statesmen enough to form a good committee. I will not allude 
unkindly to Gen. Grant. However much wrong he may have 
done otherwise, we, in Georgia, owe him a debt of which I have 
personal knowledge, and I shall never speak of him unkindly. 
But I am speaking of a great principle, and if General Grant 
had adopted and acted upon the grand truth uttered by Lee, he 
would have lived deeper in the affections of his people, and 
higher in the esteem of mankind, than all the battles he has 
won and all the presidential terms he can receive, can ever 
secure for his name. 


The second thing, indispensable to the elevation of our states- 
manship, is the reduction of Congressional salaries. Upon prin- 
ciple, the legislators of a country, who have in their hands the 
purse of the people, ought not to have the power to help them- 
selves. I believe Franklin was right, when he desired, by con- 
stitutional provision, to prohibit compensation to members of 
Congress. I am very sure the propositions of others in the 
convention, to fix the amount of the compensation in the Con- 
stitution, so that the members could not increase their own pay, 
was full of wisdom. Madison uttered a truth when he said it 
was an indecent thing for members to fix their own compensa- 
tion. 


Then, again, high congressional salaries are wrong and hurt- 
ful in policy. They excite the merely mercenary, with desires 
to secure the seats. This begets scrambling and trading in 
every election. Men of high ability will not be parties to such 
contests. Thus, mercenary men get control of the Congress, 
and, as they are chiefly moved by a passion that is insatiate, if 
the salary were a hundred thousand dollars, they would use the 
office to double the sum. This will finally reduce our states- 
manship to one governing standard : use money to get office, and 
use office to get money. With few exceptions, Congress is now 
but a sad congregation of negroes, knaves and imbeciles, and no 


26 ADDRESS. 


people ever won, or preserved, or recovered either liberty or 
right under such civil leaders. You cannot scatter a flock of 
carrion birds by railing at them, but if you burn up the stink- 
ing carcass that attracts them they will scatter themselves. So, 
we shall never get rid of these creatures from Congress, by por- 
traying their characters. They cannot see the mischief they are 
doing, and, if they could, they have not manhood enough to be 
made ashamed. But abolish the high salaries that tempt and 
feed them, and they will leave the places that furnish to them 
no other allurements. If high salaries continue, the greatest 
age of American statesmanship is in the past. We shall never 
have another Clay, or Webster, or Calhoun, in the National 
Councils. These great men served willingly on a salary of fif- 
teen hundred dollars and less. The Butlers and Chandlers, with 
their negro and carpet-bag allies—all, but the spawn of a mad 
revolution—need seven thousand five hundred dollars to support 
their dignity! It is sad to see a republic dying, as other re- 
publics have died, and the people still unable to see the evils 
which work death until life is extinct. 


But one comfort the Southern people and their children must 
ever have. Whether Constitutional government shall continue 
or fail; whether the States shall remain, or be obliterated ; 
whether liberty shall be recovered, or die the death that knows 
no waking, we ‘shall be vindicated! If the Union of the States, 
under constitutional government, and securing the blessings of 
liberty, be recovered and perpetuated, the work can only be 
done by returning to the great principles for which we strug- 
gled. The general government must be restrained within the 
limitations of its constitutional delegated powers, and the States 
restored to the unrestrained control of their domestic affairs 
under their reserved rights, or Union, States and liberty must 
perish. If this glorious work shall have success, then, the re- 
joicings of according States and happy millions from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, will sylla- 
ble forever the hallelujahs of Southern triumph ! 


But if blindness, madness, hate and ambition shall continue 
coercion and reconstruction as accepted and approved principles 
of Federal administration, then, the wail that shall come up 
from the universal wreck of Union, States and liberty, will 


ADDRESS. 27 


drown the thunder in loud vindication of Southern wisdom 
and fidelity. The graves of Davis and Lee will become Mec- 
cas for journeying, sorrow-stricken pilgrims of right for ages 
to come; and the future historian, reviewing the records your 
care shall have preserved, will write the epitaph for the Confed- 
erate dead: These were the last heroes of freedom in 
America ! 


i 





t 
+7, 
yey ee } { 
a ae Z 
* bi ; 
h : 
4104 ey 
a | 


aes hat ) 
pe ae! : 
Sa ae ba 
4%, my i 
ll rey 


ys | 
te se Bye 
Ra) ed 























